Simone Legno

 

Simone Legno is the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of tokidoki. Born in Rome, Italy, Legno drew incessantly as a child. The boxes of chewed, broken and unsharpened pencils he adored as a child were the beginnings of a passion for art that led to the eventual creation of tokidoki.

Since officially launching in 2005, tokidoki has grown into an internationally recognized pop-culture lifestyle brand and has amassed a cult-like following for its larger-than-life characters, megawatt partnerships and extensive range of products from apparel and handbags to home décor and even slot machines.

tokidoki means “sometimes” in Japanese. Legno, who has always had a deep love of Japan and fascination with world cultures, chose the word because he feels “everyone waits for moments that change one’s destiny, by chance or by meeting a new person”.  Simone's special moment arrived when his designs drew the attention of entrepreneurs Pooneh Mohajer and Ivan Arnold, who spied the art on his personal website and convinced him to move to L.A. to build a brand.

tokidoki has collaborated with many brands such as Karl Lagerfeld, Guggenheim Museum, Kartell, Sephora, LeSportsac, Onitsuka Tiger, Marvel, New Era, Hello Kitty, Fujitsu, Levi's, Smashbox Cosmetics, Xbox, T-mobile, Medicom Toy, Major League Baseball, Barbie, Canon, Black Eyed Peas and more.

As the Creator of tokidoki, Simone has become a sought-after speaker around the world at museums, universities and conferences, from MOCA (the Geffen Museum-Los Angeles) to the Adobe MAX conference, UCLA, USC, the Flash Film Festival in San Francisco, Art Center College of Design, Apple store in Osaka, Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, Singapore Toy and Comic Convention, Grafika Manila and many others. tokidoki started as Legno’s professional online portfolio and artistic diary while living in Italy, where he showcased his illustrations, advertising and new media designs for various clients. A partial list of these clients includes Volkswagen, MTV, John Galliano, Champion, Toyota, Renault, Daihatsu, BenQ, Microsoft, Narcotic Bureau of Singapore, Telecom Italia and TIM.

Simone Legno is not only a world-famous graphic artist but is also internationally recognized as an accomplished fine artist. Painting is his true love. He looks forward to stealing time for more of his fine art projects while he continues to build his phenomenal brand tokidoki.